Beneath the Wisteria
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Naru isn't a typical 14 yr old girl. She is a girl with a secret. A secret that she only her husband and a few others know of. And that secret lies buried under a large wisteria tree. This is a fem Naru/Itachi story. I kind of felt it was time to try an itachi one. Rated M. please review and let me know what you think as we try to learn Naru's secret.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay ya'll, I know that I haven't been updating my Naruto stuff like I should and I am sorry about that. It isn't that I haven't been trying. I have a bunch of barely chapters written that I just can't seem to get to work.**

 **Anyways, I wanted to give a little explanation about something in this story so no one can say that they weren't warned.**

 **First off- Naru in this story will be considered a legal adult by the village despite her young age. And the one she is paired with will only be 3 yrs older than her. So there shouldn't be a huge age gap.**

 **Second off- there will be no rape. Anything that happens between her and a guy is purely consensual and the reason behind it happening will be explained.**

 **Three- this will be a bit dark-ish and sad and angsty, but it will have a happy ending. I refuse to let our favorite blond be miserable forever.**

 **Four there will be death.**

 **And the Sex-Ed classes/ the village elders that hate Naru all suck.**

 **Enjoy.**

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It had been a mistake.

He knew this now. But at the time the incident had happened, he had had so much to do, so much to stress over and think on that he still didn't know just how things had escalated to what they were now. It wasn't as if he had asked for this, well, not totally anyways.

But at the same time, he hadn't been able to turn down her request. Not after she had explained to him in depth about the reasoning behind her request.

If anything this had been those _damned_ village elder's fault.

After all if she had never overheard their plans for her once she graduated the academy, she wouldn't have felt so backed into a corner that she had decided to act on a reckless course of action. Of course he also blamed those less than informative Sex Ed classes at the academy too.

If those fucking teachers had done their job instead of implying that sex should be approached as a sort of training- his young wife wouldn't be standing under that damned Wisteria tree in the middle of the training ground that no one used anymore, protecting what was left of a dead dream.

Sighing, he shifted his weight slightly on the tree branch in which he was seated and looked over his shoulder at the sun to gauge the time. Noting that it was almost sundown, which meant that he would have a better chance of managing to get her to come home with him and eat something and rest for once.

Granted he understood that this was a difficult time for her.

It was for him too.

After all, what parent wanted to bury their child?

He waited a few more minutes for the sun to start setting before gracefully slipping from his perch and deftly landing on the ground below and then after rolling his shoulders a little bit, began to slowly make his way over to Naru.

The second he reached her side, she turned her head to look at him. Her violet eyes, red rimmed and bloodshot from crying and underneath them dark circles stood out in stark contrast against her almost chalk white skin from lack of proper rest.

She was dressed as she had been for the past three months. In a lavender purple kimono with pretty white flowers and petals, her almost waist length strawberry blond hair hung loosely down her back.

She was one of the most beautiful girls that he had ever seen before, even now, lost in her grief.

Reaching out, he lightly cupped her soft cheek in his palm and leaned down to kiss her as she started to tremble slightly. His lips brushed her pale skin as she whimpered his name in a pained tone that made him feel as if a hand were wrapped around his heart, squeezing it.

As if it weren't crushed enough already as is.

Naru's hands came up to grip his shoulders, her fingernails digging into his skin painfully through his shirt as he wrapped his arms around her and just held her for a moment, hoping that his presence would calm her to some degree.

He wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, but he was relieved when she finally seemed to calm enough to loosen her grip on him a little bit. At least to the point where he wasn't trying to keep from winching while holding her, but jeez she still had one hell of a grip.

Loosening his grip on her a little bit, he looked down at her and gave her a gentle smile.

"I missed you today." He said in greeting. It was something that he had picked up from her after they had married. She had said it every time he come home from a mission or something. Now he would give anything to erase the past few months for them and have her return to normal so that he could finally say, _I'm happy that I don't have to miss you today._

Naru didn't speak. Really she didn't have to.

He could read her quite easily just by looking in her eyes.

It was one of the perks of being bonded to her in ways that no one else would ever be. Gently slipping his arms from around her, he managed to take her hand and kiss her knuckles before letting both of their arms drop to their sides and softly saying, "Come. It's time that we went home for the night."

Naru turned her head to look at the small area where they had buried their child and then looked back at him as if to say, "But what about the baby?" Causing him to give a tired sigh before he said,

"The baby will still be here when you return tomorrow."

She was reluctant to leave, he could see that but when he began walking, she walked with him though he half expected her to fight him as he begun to lead her the half mile trek back to their home.


	2. The beginning

Six months earlier-

"Stupid academy and it's dumb policies." Fourteen year old Naru grumbled as she walked through the village after school, heading straight for the Tower where the old man Third had told her to come once her classes for the day were over. He had decided that once she grew out of her pranking phase that she was an honest to god joy to have around and had been surprising her by secretly helping her with some of her training and school work for well over a year now.

But that wasn't really here nor there.

The reason for her visit today had a little more to do with the weird information that some of the teachers at the academy were giving kids in regards to Sex Ed.

It wasn't that they weren't really telling them anything. If one wished to be technical about things, they told them plenty. However they did it in that weird shinobi language where one thing could have a million different meanings. Plus the teacher that she had, had been hinting that certain things should happen before her class could graduate.

Which had somehow led many of the kids in her class to believe that what they were being told should be treated as training. Not only that but the teacher had stupidly spilled forbidden information concerning certain...jobs that some of the new genin _could_ and _would_ be sent on.

And that was part of the reason _why_ she needed to speak to her jiji. The other reason had to do more with the current state of things among the student.

Weird crap was happening and she kept getting the feeling that it wasn't good.

Call her crazy, but teachers were supposed to teach. Not hint at crap and let the kids pair off and let them disappear for hours only to return before the end of the day either scowling or bloody and sobbing their little hearts out.

Why some of the girls in her class hadn't come back at all after pairing up with someone. And the few that had, had come back in a weird state of near hysteria after being physically injured.

Some of the boys in her class had even tried to coax her into leaving with them earlier to 'have some fun'. To which she had bluntly but honestly told them no, and pissed them off.

She wasn't a hundred percent sure what the hell was going on, but she knew enough about the behavior of others to know when something wasn't right. And as such she easily managed to steer clear of trouble.

However she couldn't help but be curious.

And due to the info that had been given in class, curiosity was okay. It was simply how one used it that made it either good or bad.

Nodding to Genma, who gave her a smirk back in acknowledgement, as she opened the door to the building and quickly took the steps up to the top floor and entered the hallway just in time to hear muffled voices coming from jiji's office.

 _Oh. He's in a meeting. Maybe I should leave and go get something to eat so I won't interrupt him._ Naru thought as she paused outside of the kage's office and started to reach for the door when she heard someone demand in a snotty tone from inside of the office, "When does Naru Uzumaki graduate from the academy?"

Blinking at the heavy wooden door in front of her, she subconsciously hid her chakra and listened to her jiji reply in a tone that she knew very well as his I'm-less-than-happy-with-you tone. "She graduates when I say so and not a moment before." Which Naru knew was only half a truth.

As someone who had been helping her with her training and school work, he knew that she was steadily advancing to the point where she would graduate early but only if he allowed her too.

As it stood right now, he was letting her stay in the academy for several reasons. One of which was to allow her to scocialize with others her own age and make some friends. Another reason had more to do with people demanding that she be forced to graduate school early so that she could be sent on...the more _undesireable_ missions with high mortality rates.

Something that the old man wasn't going to allow to occur regardless of all her whining or anyone else's.

This was something that she understood very well, which was why she only needled him about it every few weeks or so, just for fun. To be honest, she had no problem with waiting. It was everyone else trying to browbeat her jiji into giving into their demands that needed to learn their place.

After all, even she knew that the kage had the right to veto any demands that were thrown at him when it came to her well being. He also had the right to arrest, torture and publicly execute anyone stupid enough to think that they could go around his laws and go behind his back in an effort to get rid of her.

In fact from the day that she was born to the current date, he had arrested, tortured and even killed well over five hundred people.

Listening closely, she heard another person snap at her jiji. "Well, graduate the damned girl early! There are S ranked seduction missions that call for fresh blood to be used."

Translation, the jobs called for someone inexperienced to be brutalized by some sicko for months or even years until their job was complete. And by then there was no telling what state their body and mind would be in.

Naru took a step back from the door, anxiety suddenly spiking her blood as her heart rate picked up in her chest. She could feel her jiji's none verbal response to the persons outrageous demand by the sharp spike in his chakra before he suddenly said.

"No. I will never send Naru out on one of those missions."

Followed by the snarky response, "What makes you think you have a choice?" It was then that Naru felt her jiji's chakra spike even more in nearly unrestrained rage as he practically bellowed,

"How dare you?!" The loud sound of his voice causing her to flinch as he continued to yell. "How dare you think that you have the right to come in here and do this! I will not send her on one of those missions!"

"Yes you will." Another voice said before saying, "You have two months to resign the girl to her new life-"

"Her life as the village whore- Fuck you!"

Ignoring the kage's outburst the voice continued, "She is to graduate in two months and begin her training for the missions that she will be taking. After all, you yourself have placed laws so that she is protected, however she is neither married to someone of importance nor pregnant. So you can no longer keep her from preforming the duty that we have chosen for her."

It was at this point that Naru had heard enough, and before anyone could so much as open the door to leave- she was gone from the building.


	3. A liability to peace

The moment that the elders left his office, Sarutobi slammed his fist down on his desk and called for his personal Anbu. He was beyond seething as he stared down at the papers that had been placed on his desk by Danzo pertaining to Naru's current status in the village.

Two months.

They had given him two months to try and prepare the girl to basically be bought and sold into sexual slavery by pedophiles and rapists! How could he be expected to do that when she trusted him just like any other child would? How could anyone do that?

True, she was a special case and as such due to being in her final year of school, she was already seen as an adult of the village even though she didn't wear the headband.

But that was no excuse for this. Didn't these people realize that all they were doing was undoing the hard work that he had put into all these years just to see that Naru, and everyone else were safe?

Didn't they care they what they were doing could possibly not only drive the girl insane enough to unleash the nine tails, but unleash it on all of them in revenge for their callous cruelty? Were they really so arrogant as to think that this wouldn't come back to bite them in the ass?

The moment that he felt his anbu in the office with him he stood up, not bothering to hide his anger as he looked at each of them. They were all fine men and women. Truly they were.

Each one had a talent and knack for killing that rivaled the late Fourth Hokage.

And that was really saying something considering just how clumsy the man had been sometimes when he worked.

But his Anbu weren't the least bit clumsy, he had sort of beat the whole- tripping over their own feet- crap right out of them when they had been chosen to be his personal Anbu. After all, unlike the Fourth, he didn't care for clumsy shinobi. He needed people who were more than just lethal.

And that was exactly who had gotten, which made his assignment for them an easy one.

"I want all of the village elder's assassinated." If anyone was shocked they didn't say anything or question him as to their orders. At least not right away anyways. And when one of them finally did ask why he wished them to kill their own people, something that was forbidden for many reasons.

Sarutobi leveled a glare at the nosy nin and hissed out, "They have become a liability to this village and it's people. They have arrogantly assigned Naru Uzumaki to begin taking S ranked seduction missions. This cannot happen because not only would she become unstable, but the possibility of insanity is high. I have no doubt in my mind that they are hoping that after having her assaulted so many times, they probably think that she will be easier for them to control and use as they please. The possibility that she may unleash the nine tails on the village of her own accord, doesn't seem to have crossed their minds."

Several of the Anbu hissed in outrage while the others seemed to think over the reason behind the kage's order before slowly agreeing that the elders had indeed become a liability to the peace and prosperity of the village. And as such would have to be dealt with.

"It will be as you say, Lord Third." One of the Anbu said respectfully. The elder let out a slow sigh and nodded his head, suddenly feeling very tired and drained as he slowly let some of the tension in his body leave him when he remembered that Naru was supposed to have come to his office after school and checked the clock on the wall to see what time it was and blanched before asking his Anbu where she was and if any of them had seen her.

Each of his Anbu looked at each other in silence as if trying to figure out if any of them _had_ seen the girl but to no avail, they had each been at their posts around and within the building at the time they usually knew the girl would come to see the kage.

So naturally none of them had seen her.

Sighing Sarutobi debated on sending one of them out to find her and make sure that she was okay. But something told him that the little minx had come to his office earlier during his meeting with the elders and had overheard them speaking about her and had run off upset.

I'll have to go and check on her myself once I'm done here. He thought to himself as he then began to plan for the untimely demises of over ten prominent elders from different clans, like the Hyuga, Uchiha, Inunzuka, Aburame...ect.

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Naru didn't know where she was going.

In fact she didn't pay much attention to her surroundings after leaving the Tower. Especially after hearing what those people were planning to do to her in two months time. But then if she had been thinking rationally, she would have realized that one of the fools had mentioned a way out of the fate that they had in store for her.

But since she wasn't thinking rationally, she didn't know what else to do but run as far away as possible. Or at least that was what she wanted to do, but due to being upset and her vision blurring from the tears that she was trying to hold back, she lost her footing half way across one of the rooftops and hit it and went tumbling at such a speed that she couldn't have stopped herself even if she had tried.

She felt herself roll right off of the roof and everything felt as if it had suddenly slowed down to a snails pace as she began to fall towards the ground below.

Idly thinking that maybe if she broke her neck in the fall then it would serve, whoever wanted to take her life from her control, right.

She wasn't aware of just where she was. Nor was she aware that one of her classmates, Sauske had sensed her chakra and begun looking for her while walking home with his older brother, Itachi.

"Sauske?" Itachi said as his brother took several steps forward, away from his side and started looking left, then right then straight ahead before frowning.

"Naru." The boy muttered as he suddenly heard a weird noise over head and looked up at the same time his brother noticed what looked like a weird shadowy, vague like impression of a human body was quickly descending towards the ground where Sauske stood.

Looking up, the seventeen year old Uchiha saw a small body and reacted automatically.

Moving forward, he lightly pushed Sauske out of the way and took a flying leap. Hoping to catch the kid before any serious harm could be done.

The second he was in the air, he had to time everything perfectly. After all, if he missed then someone would have to explain to the kid's parents why their child had been so badly injured or worse, killed.

The small body landed in his arms, causing him to quickly bring the kid's body closer to his own in an effort to cushion the head and neck to keep them from snapping upon landing. And in the short time between catching the kid and landing Itachi had enough time to take note of various things.

One, the small size and slight weight in his arms indicated that the kid was a female. Or at the very least a very young and underfed male.

The features of the kid's face were stunningly beautiful and feminine.

And three, he had just saved the life of his younger brother's school rival/friend, Naru Uzumaki.


	4. Itachi, Sauske, and a girl pt 1

The second his feet touched the ground, Sauske was next to him looking down at the girl talking a mile a minute. "Naru! She fell from way up there?" He asked no one in particular as he looked up at the ten story building a few feet from them with wide eyes. "I wonder what happened? She doesn't look so good. Do you think she hurt herself before she fell?"

Itachi stared at the girls pale face, taking note of the faint bruising and red scratches and few bloody cuts and gnashes that he could see and could only conclude that the girl had indeed somehow managed to hurt herself as his little brother continued to ramble.

Making Itachi want to _shush_ the boy because his rambling was starting to give him a little bit of a headache.

"She really doesn't look too good, Itachi." Sauske finally said as he ended his rambling and looked at Naru again with a small worried frown marring his face. "Should we take her to the hospital? Just to make sure that she's okay."

Itachi thought for a moment before slowly saying, "No." It wasn't that he didn't wish to take her to the hospital, it was more like- even if they did- she wouldn't get any help anyways.

The people of the village were far more likely to cause the girl more problems than anything else. Finally after several seconds of careful thought, he sighed and then told his brother that he would be taking the girl home with him.

Something that must have shocked Sauske given the way his jaw dropped open and he stared at him as he brushed by him while subconsciously shifting Naru in his arms ever so slightly to make her a bit more comfortable.

Especially since he didn't know the full extent of her injuries.

He also knew that at some point he would have to notify the Hokage and let him know where the girl was, especially given her condition. That way if she needed a medic to look at her- it could easily be arranged.

And if anyone questioned what went on in his home...well, he could easily stop anyone nosy enough to try and pry into personal his affairs. It wasn't difficult, ya know, to make people disappear.

Walking through the back alleys of the Uchiha clan's district with the unconscious jinchuuriki in his arms while trying _not_ to draw attention to himself or Naru was an extremely difficult task. Because his father's police force was stationed all over the place.

And as it was already, he had passed several of his former co-workers and tried to ignore their sudden, shocked expressions when they saw just _who_ he was carrying, and while the stares didn't exactly bug him- the fact that it was taking about fifteen minutes longer to get home due to everyone scrambling this way and that in an attempt to give him- or better yet- the girl in his arms a wide berth...bugged him immensely.

"Itachi-nii, why is everyone running around in such a weird way?" Sauske asked as he followed close at his brother's heels as he watched everyone of his dad's police force run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

He'd never seen anything so strange before in his life!

Itachi was about to respond when suddenly his friend from the police force, Shisui suddenly fell into step beside him. Nearly startling Itachi to the point where he almost dropped the girl before catching her and shooting his friend a sour look of reproach.

Shisui merely blinked at him and then gave him an awkward grin before letting his expression go blank again and asked, "What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure."

"She fell from a roof." Sauske said, causing his older brother to look at Shisui and in some odd unvocal way, asked him to smack Sauske in the back of the head for speaking when he wasn't asked to.

Shisui sighed and did as his friend silently asked, cringing a little bit when Sauske let out a loud yelp as his hand made contact with the back of his head hard enough to made the boy stumble.

"Ow!"

"Sorry Sauske, but Itachi looked at me like he wanted to beat me." Shisui said as he reached out to help the boy keep from stumbling into his older brother before then asking Itachi, "Has the Hokage been informed of Naru's presence here yet?"

"No. I was going to do that once I got her home and began checking her over for any more serious injuries."

"I'll go then and tell him where she is. Will she need a medic?"

"She is pretty banged up, and the fact that she's still unconscious worries me. A medic might be a good idea."

"Alright. I'll let lord Hokage know. Until then, get home and make her as comfortable as possible. She may have hit her head."

"Hai." Itachi said as Shisui turned and before he left quietly told Sauske to be a good little ninja and watch over his brother and Naru until he got back.


	5. An odd encounter

It took Itachi at least seven more minutes on top of the time he had already dawdled just to reach his home, and once there, he mentally cursed the fact that both Sauske and Shisui had abandoned him and left him alone with the Uzumaki girl.

Now don't get him wrong, unlike so many in the village- Itachi knew that the girl wasn't the demon fox that she contained. It was just that, well, she could be just a tad bit intimidating.

Or at least she usually was when she was awake. Not that she was a mean spirited or cruel person or anything. At least not when she felt it wasn't warranted.

He'd seen her around the village several times while working as an Anbu and knew very well what the girl did to defend herself or others when she/the other person was being attacked.

Her behavior then in comparison to her past pranks was _beyond_ startling to anyone that bothered to pay attention to such things.

Why the last time he'd seen her had been several weeks from now, and at that time she had beaten the hell out of a small lynch mob of several chunin, and at least _three_ village jounin and close to ten civilians- all of whom had dared to attack her when she was out walking around the village.

He had been out doing some shopping for his mother because she hadn't been feeling well when a body had suddenly flown out of a bar's back alley and nearly hadn't managed to get out of the way before it slammed into him.

Disgruntled and just a bit curious, he had set his purchases down and then slowly, and cautiously made his way over to the mouth of the alley and peeked into it only to have his jaw drop in disbelief.

He had known who Naru was instantly thanks to Sauske chatting endlessly about the 'weird girl' he went to class with, plus his previous brief encounters with her.

There in the alley he could plainly see her trading blows with a Hyuga while outmaneuvering an attacking Inuzuka. Before she had used some shadow clones to distract them so that she could sneak up behind them and grab the two and had then slammed their heads together until they stopped struggling in her grasp and then had unceremoniously dropped them to the ground before stepping over them, and winding her way through the chaos and scattered bodies before finally hearing someone ahead of her groan and had promptly stomped on the barely conscious man's balls.

 _Hard._

Well, hard enough to make that man scream and then throw up all over himself before he passed out again anyways. Which in turn caused Itachi himself to cringe and subconsciously cup himself just in case she was still feeling violent when she came out of the alley.

The moment Naru stepped out into the street, she seemed to zero in on him and he found himself looking into the most stunningly beautiful violet colored eyes he'd ever seen before. The color was so deep a purple that they could almost be mistaken for sapphire.

And the girl herself, well she wasn't half bad to look at either if one bothered to look past the split, bloody lip and the bruises. If anything she was, well, breathtaking in her beauty.

Which was probably why Sauske, despite being her rival at school- usually beat the crap out of any kids that picked on her at school.

Apparently he had gone a little bit too far when Sauske was two and he had told him that it was his job to take care of those weaker than himself. Which he would be the first to admit- Naru was anything but weak.

Scary as hell sure.

But not weak though he doubted that his brother was yet to totally acknowledge that fact.

Even so, it hadn't stopped him from digging a kerchief that he always carried on him, out of his pocket and held it out to her. She had blinked at him and then slowly shifted her attention to the neatly folded kerchief he was holding out to her and then frowned when he slowly reached out a little more and very lightly pressed it to her bloody lip.

Her eyes had gone wide for a moment, as if she were surprised by his caring action before she very slowly placed her hand over his and had held it there for several moments. Seemingly unsure of what to do next.

After that she had politely thanked him, though he could sense that she was a little bit wary of him and had then left to go home. Leaving him there to think on the odd encounter.

And he had thought about it. Endlessly for weeks now.

The encounter had stirred some sort of restlessness within him that he didn't quite understand. But that was neither here nor there at the moment as he left her in living room to go and collect some antiseptic and bandages so that he could take care of Naru while she was unconscious.


	6. Treating the wounded

Sauske barely bothered to say, hi, to his mother once he was home. His mind was simply too focused on the fact that Naru was hurt and his brother needed him to help with her.

So once he had divested himself of his book bag, and school clothes and managed to locate and dig out his basic first aid kit and then redressed himself in his play clothes- Sauske stopped by the kitchen to briefly tell his mother that he was heading to Itachi's place before he was out the door again and tearing out of the yard as if his pants were on fire.

Itachi had just finished examining Naru for any possible serious injuries before he sat back on his heels with a soft sigh. There was a knot on the back of the girl's head the size of a goose egg, which possibly explained why she was still unconscious. Aside from that, there were only one or two injuries that probably needed any real medical attention.

One was a fracture and some torn ligaments in one of the girl's arms.

The other was a terribly hurt and swollen and bruised ankle that he was currently in the process of wrapping when his front door opened and he heard his brother call out in a weird half yell, half whisper tone that always made his eye twitch whenever he heard it.

Exhaling softly, Itachi flared his chakra a bit knowing that his brother would be able to pin point it's exact location in the house and come right to him. Sure enough a minute or so later, Sauske was right next to him holding a first aid kit in his hands.

Itachi blinked at him but didn't pause in his actions. He intended to have the girl's ankle and arm wrapped before anyone else showed up at his place.

After all the last thing he needed was an incredibly _irate_ kage making accusations about him ignoring the girl's injuries while he had waited for him to show up, just to make the girl suffer.

Like everyone else in the damned village would. Especially since the man should know better since Itachi had at several points in time expressed concern for the girl's welfare to not only the kage, but to several others as well. Like the Anbu captain Wolf, and Shikaku Nara.

In fact he'd spoken to each of the men often times at length about the way the girl was always attacked, injured and so on. Which was part of the reason that lord Hokage had passed certain laws to protect her a bit better.

However like with every law, there was always someone, or some loophole- that some people found or figured that they could get away with not taking heed of. Either because of ignorance or arrogance or greed.

Sitting back once he was done wrapping the girl's ankle, he was about to send his little brother to the kitchen to get some ice to put on the wound when something was carefully placed on her ankle over the bandages.

Blinking at the thing, it took him a moment to notice that it was the ice pack he kept ready for when he hurt himself. Inwardly smiling to himself as he began to carefully wrap Naru's arm, he was secretly proud of his little brother for showing such concern for his schoolmate.

Especially given how much he tended to bitch about her.

"Do you have any pain killers in that first aid kit?" He asked absently. Sauske thought for a moment before nodding his head and setting the kit down so that he could open it up and rummage through it.

"I have some small morphine injections that are used by the medical nins."

Itachi paused in wrapping Naru's arm and turned his head to look at his little brother through slightly narrowed eyes before demanding, "Where did you get those?"

 _"Uh- Dad."_ The boy squeaked as he noticed that his brother was suddenly pissed off for some reason.

Itachi stared him down for several seconds, seemingly trying to gauge whether or not her was lying before dropping the bandages he was using to wrap Naru's arm, and reaching out and taking the kit from his hands and took one of the morphine injections in his hand and then snapped the lid on the first aid kit closed and then took the kit and set it down next to him, _away_ from Sauske's innocent hands as he growled out, "Father and I are going to have a long, _long_ heart to heart talk later."

Sauske blanched a little bit and weakly pleaded, "Please just keep mom out of it." After all, the last time Itachi had gotten pissed at their dad, he had told on their old man to their mother whom had terrorized their father for weeks for what he had done.

"I make no promises." Itachi deadpanned as Sauske nervously fidgeted a little bit.

The mere thought of his mother being involved in another talk Itachi planned for their father was enough to make Sauske wish he lived elsewhere. Like far, far, far away. Somewhere where he wouldn't be subjected to his father's cries and pleas for help and fear for his own sanity.

Itachi gave Naru the small morphine injection and then tossed the tiny used capsule that the pain killer came in across the room, where it landed in the waste basket and then began his work all over again since the bandages had loosened when he had let them go.


	7. Invite to dinner

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at his desk enjoying a nice warm cup of honey sweetened chai spice tea. While pouring over some papers from some files that he'd needed to check, when he happened to recall that Naru's birthday was only four months away. And he needed to make sure that he cleared his schedule so that he could throw the girl a proper birthday since he hadn't been able to do so for the past ten years or so.

Scrunching up his nose a little bit as he mouthed the words he was reading from the file, he also made a mental note to take the girl shopping and to raise her allowance a bit since she was quickly approaching the age where she would need it more.

For... _female_ things. And _oh_ , how he was dreading it.

He dreaded Naru's upcoming approach to the age of fertility almost as like he dreaded his next upcoming root canal. Mostly because he feared that she would become a target for sexual assault. And with her grades in the academy, he doubted that she was being taught anything of actual value there to sufficiently defend herself.

He would have to make sure that he assigned some Anbu to her a month or so before her birthday rolled around. Otherwise he may be called to the hospital one day to have to explain to her- His grim thoughts were cut short there when there was a sudden tap at his window, causing him to partially turn in his seat to see who was there.

And then frowned when he saw Shisui perched on the other side of the glass.

Getting up out of his seat, he quickly made his way over to the window and opened it for the teen and allowed him to climb inside of his office before asking, "What's wrong?"

Shisui looked at him for a moment before replying, "Naru is injured. She's currently in the custody of Itachi and his younger brother, both of whom will protect her- however she may need you and a medic present to ask how she became so injured in the first place. Since I seriously doubt that she would have become unconscious and concussed from merely falling off of a building rooftop."

"You think that she was attacked?"

"From what little bit of her I managed to see- yes. She had bruises and other defensive wounds. Perhaps even a few fractures and broken bones."

"I see... I will summon a med-" Sarutobi started to say when he was cut off by the teen.

"There is no need, Hokage-sama. I have already retrieved one, and sworn them to silence. They already know who they will be treating and why. They also know that you will be present and if they try anything- one of us will kill him. We just need to start for the Uchiha compound. When you are ready sir." The teen said as he motioned for the elder to go first and watched as the man quickly took off his hat and then turned and vanished out the window.

(*******************************************************************************************************************************************)

Itachi felt somewhat nervous having the Kyubbi girl, Naru in his home.

Not because he disliked or hated her- to be honest he believed letting himself dislike or hate her for something beyond her control was more than a tad bit unfair to her as a person. No- he was nervous with her being in his home because he was in his seventeen and a _very_ desirable bachelor within the village.

Coming in second only to Sharigan no Kakashi.

And he didn't want anyone knowing that she was there because if they found out- unnecessary rumors would start to fly about the two of them and their relationship. He didn't care much for the attention and probably wouldn't suffer overly much negativity.

Naru on the other hand, would.

The poor girl already had enough crap to deal with as far as how her peers viewed her. She didn't need her innocence tarnished by being labeled a slut and whore on top of it all.

With Sasuke running around his home- he had a little bit of wiggle room as far as the rumors would go. However when the Hokage and medic showed up, there would be no room for doubt that any anonymous person whom just happened to be passing by and noticing the girl in/around his home, would be able to question the reasons _why_ she had been there to begin with.

With the Hokage and medic present those questions would be automatically answered.

There would be no rumors to cause her more trouble. End of story.

Or at least that was what he was hoping would happen, cause if he found out otherwise, he'd have to go against his family and clan and marry the girl just to stop the trouble from becoming critical. And though he wasn't all that sure that he was ready for such a thing to happen... He stopped pacing long enough to let his dark gaze settle on the girl.

Despite her age, and her current state of dishevelment, she was quite a vision with her wild looking long strawberry blond hair, her delicately featured heart shaped face, ivory skin, slender build. Hell even her height was appealing to him as a male.

She simply fit perfectly in his arms.

And from what little bit Sasuke had told him of her since their first day of academy together, despite the fact that the girl never did anything to deserve it- she wasn't exactly treated well by a lot of people. Sasuke was one of the people that actually tended to treat her well, though she didn't seem overly fond of his attentions but put up with them anyways so as not to hurt his feelings.

He told him once that Naru was sort of quiet and guarded too outside of school.

Despite what she was like out and around the village most of the time, when people weren't watching her closely, she tended to simply blend into the background to the point where Sasuke mentioned being jealous of her for being able to do such a thing so easily.

Itachi supposed that he could agree, being able to blend in like that would be rather nice. He himself tended to do the same thing when he was curious, or simply wanted to be left alone from all those who sought his attentions.

He could imagine the girl wishing much along the lines of the same from time to time.

Aside from his little brother singing more than enough of the girl's praises, Itachi had found himself rather curious about her a time or two and had actively sought her out on more than one occasion. Though he had been sure to erase those encounters from her mind before he left her.

From what his brother tended to tell him, she was actually quite pleasant and politely mannered when sitting one on one with someone equally politely mannered. She was intelligent too. Very much so.

The first time that he had sought her out because of his curiosity, she had mentioned several key holes in the village's defenses that needed to be strengthened. There were places where a village wide attack would wipe everyone and everything out, there were places where an invading outside force could slip by them and slaughter them all in their sleep.

She kept extremely well documented maps of each area. And had even showed them to him.

He'd taken the map away from her and placed in within the Hokage's hands, of course. But it wasn't a hundred percent because he didn't trust her, it was more like he didn't trust others not to break into her home, find the map and betray the village.

She must have been aware of that on some level since she let him take it without any fussing or fighting. He highly doubted that she wasn't without one or more new maps by now though. Come to think of it, he needed to drop by her place again and take those too. Just to be on the safe side.

It was right about then that Sasuke stuck his head into the living room from the kitchen at the exact moment that Itachi seemed to detect activity just outside his home.

"Nii-san, do you think we can ask lord Hokage and Naru if they would like to eat dinner with us?"

Itachi almost visibly cringed at the mere idea. Not that it bothered him any- it didn't. For a while now he had been dying to have Sasuke and someone else over so that he could show off his fantastic cooking skills. And as much as he might like to do so- he didn't think Hokage-sama, nor Naru would appreciate being ambushed into having dinner with himself and his brother.

He was about to tell his little brother no, when he suddenly noticed that he wasn't where he had been a few seconds ago and turned his head this way and that to try and locate the squirt when he heard his voice, speaking in the general vicinity of the front door and quietly bristled as he heard the Hokage's masculine laughter of amusement as he told his brother that both he and Naru would be _delighted_ to have today's dinner with them.

Which caused Itachi in turn to almost groan as he covered his face with his hands as the elder stepped through the door followed by a medic and his older cousin.

"Hello Itachi, how is Naru doing?" The Hokage asked politely as he walked over to the young Uchiha.

"Still unconscious on the couch, sir. I've treated what I could of her wounds with Sasuke acting as my little helper." Itachi said as he caught his little brother by the scruff of the neck as he tried to get by them to head back into the kitchen. The boy made a funny face as a squeak escaped him while he felt his brother's fingers roughly combing through his hair.

The boy could already tell that his brother was going to skin him alive for inviting the Hokage and Naru to stay for dinner, but he had his reasons for doing so.

He knew for a fact that Naru rarely had any decent food at home that didn't have mold or was rotten. And could even more rarely afford to eat out in the village. Unless she went fishing or hunting and foraging then she rarely had anything at all that she _could_ eat. At least if she were here at his brother's home, she could get a decent meal- perhaps even enough leftovers to last a little while until he could wrangle her into eating dinner with him and his brother again.

The moment that the Hokage went to check on Naru along with the medic, Itachi practically lifted the boy by the back of his shirt so that he was dangling up off of the floor and walked them both into the kitchen and sat Sasuke on his kitchen table before wheeling on the boy and snapping, "What the hell are you trying to do to me?! Why would you go inviting the lord third and your classmate to dinner without any prior warning?"

"I have my reasons nii-san." Sasuke said with a little pout.

"Tell me those reasons now or I'm sending you home and grounding you from my house for at least a week."

"What! You can't do that!"

"I can and I will." Itachi warned causing the boy to actually blanch at the mere thought of being exiled form his brother's home for a week or two.

Sasuke frantically launched into his reasons about wanting to invite Naru to eat dinner with them. And by the time he finished explaining why he decided to include the Hokage in the invite, Itachi sighed, getting the rather dark picture that his little brother had just painted for him.

Moving away from his sniffling little brother, he went to a large jar that he kept on the top of his fridge stuffed full of paper money and coins and fished out a decent amount and then went back to his sniffling brother and laid a hand on his head as he leaned down a little bit and said, "Okay, they can have dinner here. You can even drop by starting tomorrow morning to pick up a couple of extra bento's lunches, and whatever leftovers we have from tonight will be boxed and sent home with her. Now- I need you to run to the grocery and get us some chicken, enough fish to feed at least six people, and some veggies. Cherry tomato's, onions, eggplant, radishes, lettuce and a few other things. Think you can handle that?"

Sasuke took the money that his brother handed to him and nodded his head as he wiped his eyes and with an overly determined look, jumped down and ran out of the door- damn near mowing down the Hokage in the process if the startled yelp from the man was any indication at all.


	8. A little chit chat

The moment that the village elder/leader and Itachi both heard the front door slam, the Kage looked at Itachi before asking in a semi stunned tone, "What the devil was that all about?"

Itachi merely shrugged his shoulders before replying simply, "I asked him to run out and grab some things so that I can make dinner. Sorry that he almost mowed you down."

The Hokage chuckled quietly in amusement as he waved Itachi's apology off. "It's fine. It's fine. I used to deal with the same thing from various youngsters coming and going while excited about something. It's good that he wants to do these things for his classmate. It shows just how much he worries and cares."

Itachi said nothing for a moment as he silently agreed with the man before finally realizing that his Kage was in the kitchen with him. Which probably meant that he either had something to say, or ask perhaps.

"Did you need something Hokage-sama? Tea or-"

"Tea would be nice. But aside form that I just thought I'd ask you if you needed any help preparing dinner. I also thought it would be a good idea due to the fact that Naru has very specific dietary needs, and the information may help keep her from needing to undergo a trip to the ER later."

Itachio blinked, obviously a little startled at hearing about the girl's dietary needs and was a little uncertain as to what to say. "O-Oh." He said awkwardly before mentally kicking himself for letting his little brother run off since he doubted that he knew anything about Naru's...er needs. And also because he wound have to replan what to fix and didn't have the time to hunt the child down.

"You needn't worry Itachi. Sasuke knows about Naru's specific dietary needs. The poor boy sort of caught her trying to take care of them after leaving the hospital a few months back. Naru was so mortified by being caught like that, that she freaked out on him and told him, and I quote, 'If you dare to say so much as a word to anyone about this, I'll beat you so hard that you pee your pants!' end quote."

Itachi blinked at the elder and then glanced towards the door, unsure of how he should react to this news. On one hand, if the girl was as mortified as the elder said- her threatening to beat his brother until he wet himself would be considered rather comical.

But on the other...should he be worried that she may actually attempt to carry out her threat if she thought that he told? The Hokage must have seen the gears turning in his head as he thought and obviously sought to lay his concerns to rest.

"She was understandably upset both about being caught doing what was needed to stay healthy and alive, and by her actions towards your brother. She bemoaned it for quite a while even after apologizing to him. So I doubt that she would actually injure him on purpose. Besides, it takes much more than a small betrayal like _that_ one to earn her wrath. Besides, your brother has been attempting to help her ever since he found out."

Again Itachi blinked at the elder before finally saying. "Ah. I see. Very well then, please tell me what she needs specifically."

The elder smiled and then said, "Naru due to the Kyubbi sealed inside of her as well as her age, needs a great deal of dairy, and either raw or medium rare meat. It can be seasoned. Beef and chicken are the easiest things for her to digest. The vitamins and other things in the rare or medium rare meats help her. I'm not a hundred percent what it helps her with, but I think it has something to do with her anemia."

Itachi leaned down so that he was in the Kage's personal space as he practically gaped at the man. He'd never heard of any demon vessels being anemic before. It fact it was positively unheard of for one to be anemic. Unusually they were so unfathomably strong that it simply boggled the mind.

But then most other demon vessel's that he knew anything of were all adults with the exception of one other aside from Naru herself. And that one was incredibly unstable.

"S-She's anemic? How? Why?"

The elder reached up and placed his hand on Itachi's cheek and gently pushed the younger man away from him as he said, "I believe it's partially due to the fact that her chakra coils are slightly underdeveloped. They have been ever since she was born. Couple that with her poor diet and her specific needs going unmet- and she tends to collapse more often than she should as a vessel. With enough proper food and her needs being met more often, she wouldn't collapse and would inevitably grow out of the anemia."

Itachi hummed thoughtfully as he backed off and went about fixing some tea for the elder to drink while he then pulled out some of his pots and pans so that he would have them out when Sasuke got back with the food. While doing so, he even pulled a few meat seasonings from his spice rack to show to the Hokage and see if the elder would let him know whether or not he could use them.

He must have done this for quite some time, because once he finally ran out of spices to ask the Hokage about and carefully sorted them on his counter- Sasuke had finally come back with two large bags full of all of the meats and veggies that he had asked him to get plus some. And three smaller bags chocked full of dressings, rice, dipping sauces and so on.

"I got everything you asked for nii-san!" Sasuke chirped happily as he handed Itachi what was left of the change. The older Uchiha took the coins in his hand and then glanced down at his grinning little brother and then let his gaze slide to the bags before he finally arched a brow in question.

Had the little brat robbed a candy store on the way back or something? Where the heck was the rest of his- His thoughts were cut off rather abruptly as the Hokage began going through the bags until he found what he was obviously looking for and then held up his prize/prizes with a soft sound of triumph.

"Yes! Thank you Sasuke for getting these for me. It's mine and Naru's favorite tea and sweetener."

"Your welcome, lord Hokage-sama." The boy said brightly before he then skipped off, leaving his somewhat perplexed older brother standing there wondering what the hell had just happened. And why had _his_ money paid for it?


End file.
